Tag Archives: academy of okinawan karate

Photo Friday Catchup: Haunted

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My karate dojo had its annual haunted house over the weekend, and once again we had a great time putting a scare into people. We warn parents that it may be a little intense for the younger children, but inevitably we’ll get some folks taking four- and five-year-old kids through.

Good times.

Right off the bat, we try to show them that we’re not playing around:

Babies

What you don’t see is the truly terrifying “Big Baby”

For such a small haunted house, it strikes a good balance between gruesome scenery and jump-out-at-you thrills. Some of it is very effective, too, getting screams even out of adults who walk through the first half without much jumping.

Of course, then there are the kids screaming “I want out of here!” less than halfway through. Those are our favorite.

My eldest doesn’t go through. His first time through a few years back was enough. Now his imagination makes it much bigger and scarier than it really is. Meanwhile, my middle child walks through unfazed. He loves it. When he gets to my spot, he watches my schtick, then says “hi, Dad,” and moves on.

I’ll have to see about getting my eldest on the inside next year. He’d have a blast with it.

About Mike Oliveri

Mike Oliveri is a writer, martial artist, cigar aficionado, motorcyclist, and family man, but not necessarily in that order. His Bram Stoker Award-winning first novel, Deadliest of the Species, was just reprinted by Evileye Books.

Photo Friday: Trias Memorial Workout

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Monday was the anniversary of Grand Master Trias’s death, and the Academy of Okinawan Karate dojos held memorial workouts in his honor. This picture was shot after the workout.

Trias Memorial Workout - After

What you can't see is how drenched with sweat our gis are

Standing in the dojo, I couldn’t tell there were two different colors of light coming down on the group. Now it’s obvious: the left half is under yellow/orange light and the right half is under white. Unfortunately I don’t have the Photoshop/Lightroom skills to fix that yet. The photographer (*ahem*) probably should have stepped in to override the group arrangement, too. Ah well. The participants are already anxious to get their hands on the photo.

I chose to shoot without flash because of the distance and distribution of the group. I used the kit lens pulled out to a wide angle and cranked the ISO up to 800 to get a good shutter speed inside, especially with some fidgety little ones in the front row.

The set with the before shots can be found here.

As a side note, I think I’m going to stop using Snapfish/Walmart for my prints. These pics came back, and they clearly altered my exposure in one shot and made the people too dark. I’m going to talk to the folks at Peoria Camera Shop and see how they handle processing during printing. Hell, maybe their classes will help me compensate for the lighting issues I ran into.

About Mike Oliveri

Mike Oliveri is a writer, martial artist, cigar aficionado, motorcyclist, and family man, but not necessarily in that order. His Bram Stoker Award-winning first novel, Deadliest of the Species, was just reprinted by Evileye Books.

Photo Friday: Roundhouse Kick

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The only photo opportunity I was able to make was graduation night at the Academy of Okinawan Karate this evening, and I captured a shot of one of the little guys I work with frequently at the dojo I train at.

High Roundhouse

Hai-yaaaaa!!

I a perfect world I’d have backed off a bit and not cut off his foot, but I was shooting with a 50mm prime, was backed up to a wall, and he was standing fairly close. The main reason I like it, though, is this little guy is throwing a nice roundhouse kick to head level. For a kid his age, who just learned the kick, this is pretty impressive.

Probably not by coincidence, he’s also one of the more attentive and conscientious kids in class. Good job, kid, keep up the great work.

About Mike Oliveri

Mike Oliveri is a writer, martial artist, cigar aficionado, motorcyclist, and family man, but not necessarily in that order. His Bram Stoker Award-winning first novel, Deadliest of the Species, was just reprinted by Evileye Books.

Photo Friday: Sensei Smash

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I finally uploaded the photos from last Saturday’s Break Day at the Academy of Okinawan Karate’s Eureka Dojo, and I selected the photo of my instructor, Sensei Trent Miller (nidan) for this week’s Photo Friday entry.

Sensei's Break

Four boards hammer fist

Shot with the 18-55mm kit lens on my Digital Rebel XSi. No flash. I cranked the ISO up to 800 to compensate for the indoor lighting. Normally I’d go lower, but the overcast day meant even less light than usual in the dojo. I spread the autofocus across the boards and the front of Sensei’s uniform as he prepared, then used continuous shutter to capture the motion.

I managed to capture all of the students’ breaks this year, so I’m happy with the results. I may experiment with capturing motion blur in the hands, but the actual Break Day isn’t the time for experimenting. Maybe I’ll work with my instructors on that another time.

About Mike Oliveri

Mike Oliveri is a writer, martial artist, cigar aficionado, motorcyclist, and family man, but not necessarily in that order. His Bram Stoker Award-winning first novel, Deadliest of the Species, was just reprinted by Evileye Books.

Break Day Vid

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Saturday was Break Day at the Academy of Okinawan Karate, and this year I broke three boards with a hammer fist strike. I had a student record it on my phone. He held it at a funky angle, but you can see what’s happening:

The cheering you’re hearing is the word senpai, which roughly translates to senior student. In a sense it’s what we’d think of as a mentor or big brother. I help out around the dojo, help teach, and substitute teach when Sensei is gone, so I get a fancy title.

The break was easier than I expected. I cut out the boring parts of my practice strikes, so there I am psyching myself up for a moment before doing the strike. Next time I’ll have to decide between doing three boards with a vertical punch, or moving up to four boards with a stomp kick. Any time a student wants to break an additional board, our school has the student perform that break first with a stomp kick to get a feel for the strength of the stack with an added board. If I do four, I’ll have a little more freedom of choice for breaks during demos or future break days.

The board is a simple pine board. They grab pine planks at the lumber yard, have them cut into the boards, and we bust ‘em up. There is no other prep like pre-cuts or baking. Younger students get smaller boards, but they still break pine. It’s all an exercise in boosting confidence, so the instructors make sure every student is able to perform their break.

It’s a lot of fun, and I’ll be posting our students’ break pics in the near future.

About Mike Oliveri

Mike Oliveri is a writer, martial artist, cigar aficionado, motorcyclist, and family man, but not necessarily in that order. His Bram Stoker Award-winning first novel, Deadliest of the Species, was just reprinted by Evileye Books.

Photo Friday: The Family That Fights Together

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This week’s Photo Friday 2011 entry was taken at the Academy of Okinawan Karate’s graduation night at the Morton dojo. Here I managed to capture Mr Joey Johnston, the head of the Morton dojo, running a kata while his stepfather, Shuri-ryu Chief Instructor Shihan Joseph Walker, looks on.

Scan for New Opponents

Mr Joey Johnston runs a kata while Shihan Joseph Walker looks on

The Morton dojo has plenty of smooth, white light, so I used my 18-55mm kit lens with a custom white balance for this shot. For the rest of the set I switched between no flash and using an external SpeedLite with automatic white balance because the light was a bit low.

About Mike Oliveri

Mike Oliveri is a writer, martial artist, cigar aficionado, motorcyclist, and family man, but not necessarily in that order. His Bram Stoker Award-winning first novel, Deadliest of the Species, was just reprinted by Evileye Books.

Photo Friday: The Karate Seminar

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I selected two pictures from the International Shuri-Ryu Association’s martial arts seminar in Fort Wayne, Indiana last weekend to illustrate a point: karate is not just about standing up with an opponent and punching and kicking.

Yes, that’s where the concentration is, and to look at most of our kata, it’s easy to assume that’s all that’s going on. However, karate, and Shuri-ryu especially, can include takedowns, pressure point attacks, joint locks, pins/holds, and more. In the following photos, Shuri Cup tournament competitors can be seen demonstrating takedowns mixed into the bunkai (simply put, a demonstration of application) of the kata.

Takedown

Mr Nate England takes down Mr Joey Johnston, a student and an instructor respectively at the Academy of Okinawan Karate.

While we do incorporate judo techniques into the curriculum, we don’t necessarily turn kata demonstration or sparring  into a judo match. In both cases, the demonstrators took their opponent down, but they did not go to the ground with them. Sure, they could get down and submit the opponent in an armbar, but there’s already another opponent ready to come in and attack. As such, the demonstrators stayed on their feet while eliminating their opponent.

Ouch!

Mr Gustavo Lugo eliminates his opponent with a throat strike.

Grappling was a heavy component of the seminar, especially in the sessions I attended. I picked up several new techniques, especially some ground fighting techniques in Shihan Joseph Walker’s Haganah session. Fortunately a lot of the basic concepts were familiar to me, and that made it a lot easier to understand what was demonstrated. I saw and learned a lot, and I feel like my own karate will be better for it.

I only took pictures during the Shuri Cup, as the rest of the time I was too busy practicing to carry a camera. In the downtime between sessions I was too busy getting a drink and jotting notes. The Friday & Saturday sessions, as well as the tournament, took place in a Masonic Lodge hall, and with the available light I opted to use my 50mm prime lens. I knew I’d be shooting rapid fire to catch karate techniques, so I opted against RAW. I set a custom white balance using my instructor Sensei Miller’s gi as the white model, then fired away. I’m happy with the above pics, as I was mostly shooting to capture the moment rather than look for a great photograph. I only carried so much over to the practice hall and had no idea what to expect in terms of lighting, distance, crowds, etc. I also didn’t want to be the guy distracting competitors with a bright flash in their face, especially when they’re supposed to be blocking punches and then aiming their own punches and kicks back at their opponents.

You can see the rest of the set on Flickr, including pictures of the rest of the competitors and the judges. There was a lot of talent out there, and it was a lot of fun to watch.

All in all I had a blast, and finding a gyro joint serving both Kronos Gyros and Vienna Beef hot dogs until four in the morning was a nice bonus. I can’t wait to do it again next year.

About Mike Oliveri

Mike Oliveri is a writer, martial artist, cigar aficionado, motorcyclist, and family man, but not necessarily in that order. His Bram Stoker Award-winning first novel, Deadliest of the Species, was just reprinted by Evileye Books.